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Last week, we cited a study from mobile analytics firm Distimo that stated the majority of paid Android applications were downloaded less than 100 times. On Android, folks like the free apps, it seems. Now, to back up that report with additional data, we have mobile search firm Chomp's report for the month of April.
During this past month, 97% of all Android downloads throughout its search properties were free apps, and that number has increased by 2% over March, the company says.
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If the Distimo study didn't make the Android developer's heart sink a bit, Chomp's new pie charts surely will.
97% of Android Downloads were Free
On Android, Chomp found that apps in the $4.01-$5.00 range stayed consistent with 0.3% of the download volume since March, but all other paid apps declined. And, as noted above, the large majority (97%) of Android downloads were free apps.
Above: Android apps in April 2011
Paid Downloads on iOS Increased 3.8%
To put this in perspective, developers with paid apps on iTunes saw downloads increase by 3.8% over March. Price points showing the most growth included the $0.99 group (1.9%), $1.99 group (0.7%) and the $2.99 group (0.6%). Of apps priced over $14.99, the $23.99 price point took 37% of the market share.
Above: iOS apps in April 2011
Maybe even more telling was the use of Chomp's "free" filter in April, a filter which allows you to see just the free apps. Android users applied this filter 12% of the time, while 33% of all iOS queries used the "free" filter. Perhaps this is because Android users already expect the apps to be free? That would be our guess.
More trends and statistics are available in the full report, available here from Chomp.com.
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